Charlotte Brontë’s The Search After Happiness, Good Editing, and the Brontë Juvenilia

Background As I'm obsessed with the Brontë juvenilia, I make it my business to read as many versions of the writings as I can find. Yes, in theory, the narratives should be the same, but in the case of juvenilia, how a text is edited can have a big impact on how it is not…

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Branwell Brontë: An Appreciation

June 26th 2020 marks the 203rd birthday of Branwell Brontë. Born in 1817 to Patrick and Maria Brontë in Thornton, he was the fourth of six children, and the only boy in an intelligent, creative, yet poor family. After moving from Thornton to Haworth where the family took up residency in the now iconic Brontë…

Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor: Juvenilia or Mature Novel?

My aim when setting up Brontë Babe Blog several years ago was to bring the childhood writings of the Brontë siblings to light. The Brontë juvenilia canon as I will call it, is a fascinating insight into the Brontës' literary apprenticeship, but it can also teach us so much more about their lives, interests, hobbies,…

People and Places from the Brontë Juvenilia Part One: Glass Town and Angria

When setting up Brontë Babe Blog it was my intention to introduce readers to the Brontë juvenilia in the hope of inspiring people to actually read texts from Charlotte and Branwell’s Glass Town/Angrian saga. Sadly most of Emily and Anne’s writings have been lost to time and what remains is difficult to piece together and…

Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg – Review

A few months back a very interesting looking book caught my eye due to some intriguing and exciting snippets that I spotted doing the rounds on Twitter. One of the snippets was an illustration of Charlotte Brontë's adored hero from her worlds of Glass Town and Angria, the Duke of Zamorna, invading the real world…

Brother Branwell, Sister Charlotte: A Complex Collaboration

For years now I’ve been drawn to the Brontë family. Not just their fascinating childhood writings and elaborate fantasy worlds of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal, but their lives, relationships, and every day interactions. The two figures that draw me in repeatedly are my favourite writer of all time, the smart, strong, determined figure of…

I’m Just Going to Write Because I Cannot Help It: Part 2 – When Glass Towns Collide

Let me travel back in time to April 2011. Almost a year after graduating with such high hopes from university, and after being turned down for MA funding, I was stuck in a bit of rut. In my hometown, once famous for its glass, we were hit hard by the recession, our heritage and industry…

Review: Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre by Glynnis Fawkes

My obsession with the Brontë juvenilia and basically everything Charlotte ever wrote before penning her masterpiece, Jane Eyre, in 1847, meant that just the title of Glynnis Fawkes' new book, Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre was enough to spark my interest. I'm glad to see an increasing focus on the Brontë juvenilia and the stories Charlotte,…

Charlotte Brontë’s Unfinished Novels: Ashworth

Introduction Charlotte Brontë is best remembered as the author of Jane Eyre (1847), a literary masterpiece and my favourite novel of all time. In her lifetime she also published two other novels, Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853). Another novel, The Professor, was published posthumously in 1857 after being rejected by publishers a decade earlier. Prior to this in 1846, Poems by Charlotte and her…

I’m Just Going to Write Because I Cannot Help It: Reality Versus Fantasy in Charlotte Brontë’s Roe Head Journal.

The 21st of April 2019 marks the 203rd birthday of my favourite writer of all time, Charlotte Brontë. Strong-willed, fierce, determined, and incredibly talented, I am in complete awe of her. To celebrate Charlotte's birthday in 2018 I wrote a post about some of her lesser-known works from her Glass Town and Angrian saga in…